Saturday, June 14, 2008

In Search of Enemies : A CIA Story

John Stockwell was the head of the CIA Angola Task Force during their covert operations in that country in 1975. His previous experiences in Vietnam combined with what he experienced in Angola led him to resign from the CIA and write this expose of the agency. In 1980, Stockwell said "if the Soviet Union were to disappear off the face of the map, the United States would quickly seek out new enemies to justify its own military-industrial complex", and his words have certainly proved to be prophetic with our endless all-consuming "War On Terror". In his book on Angola, he paints the picture of a thoroughly corrupt (yet often incompetent and mistake-prone) agency that blows absolute wads of taxpayer money with little to no real oversight, lies to Congress and manipulates information in order to start an unnecessary war, and hires mercenaries who commit battlefield atrocities, amongst other things. Because Stockwell refused to submit the book to the CIA prior to it's printing for censorship, they successfully sued him for the royalties and now own the rights to any copies sold of it. Thus, it is highly recommended that you either buy pre-owned, pick it up from a local library, or view excerpts from it online.

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P 15 "Director Turner and President Carter have it backwards. It is the American people's unequivocal right to know what their leaders are doing in America's name and with our tax dollars ... The Constitution of the United States does not read that all citizens shall have freedom of speech except those that have signed CIA oaths ... I invite the reader to judge which is more important: CIA misadventures such as this one, or our fundamental right to know the truth about our public servants' activities and to keep them honest?"

P 49 "Essentially a conservative organization, the CIA maintains secret liaison with local security services wherever it operates ... Case officers live comfortable lives among the economic elite ... They become conditioned to the mentality of the authoritarian figures, the police chiefs, with whom they work and socialize, and eventually share their resentment of revolutionaries who threaten the status quo. They are ill at ease with democracies and popular movements - too fickle and hard to predict."

P 53 "The Congo covert action cost American taxpayers a million dollars a day for a sustained period. The CIA claimed to have won that one, although it was by no means clear ten years later what we had won. Mobuto was energetically running the country into the ground and had turned on his American benefactors."

P 203 "What role does international business play in operations like Cuba, and wars like the Congo, Vietnam and Angola? In Angola, several transnational giants, including Gulf, Boeing, DeBeers, Mobil and numerous smaller companies had interests in the outcome. Before the war Gulf Oil had exclusive access to the Cabindan oil fields. Boeing had contracted to sell two of its 737 jetliners to ... the Angolan national airline ... a New York financier interviewed me for employment as his company's Angola representative ... but it was contingent on a quick and satisfactory resolution of the war, at which time the financier was poised to exploit Angolan diamonds and other mineral resources."

P 228 "Since the Freedom of Information Act, the agency increasingly uses a system of "soft", "unofficial" or "convenience" files for sensitive subjects, especially any involving surveillance of Americans. Such files are not registered in the agency's official records system, and hence can never be disclosed under the FOIA."

P 235 - regarding Henry Kissinger's famous quote "One must not confuse the intelligence business with missionary work" - "In 1974 and 1975 the CIA, under orders from Kissinger, had mounted a program to arm and encourage the Kurdish people to revolt against the Iraqi government. This was done at the request of the Shah of Iran, who was contending with the Iraqis. When the Shah had reached a satisfactory understanding with the Iraqis, the CIA was called off and it abruptly abandoned the Kurds, leaving them helpless, unable to defend themselves against bloody reprisals from the Iraqi army."

P 252 - responding to the Hoover Commmission report of 1954 - "Our survival as a free people has obviously not been dependent on the fumbling activities of the clandestine service of the CIA, but on the dynamism of our economic system and the competitive energies of our people. Nor was Hoover's philosophy "fundamentally repugnant". Rather, it was *irresistible*, for it created an exhilarating new game where all social and legal restraints were dissolved. Cast as superpatriots, there were no rules, no controls, no laws, no moral restraints and no civil rights for the CIA game players. No individual in the world would be immune to the depradations, friends could be shafted and enemies destroyed, without compunction. It was an experiment in amorality."

P 251 - "Over the years a profound, arrogant, moral corruption set it. Incompetence became the rule. The clandestine services established a solid record of failure ... Eventually, like any secret police, they became abusive of the people: they drugged American citizens; opened private mail; infiltrated the media with secret propaganda and disinformation; lied to our elected representatives; and set themselves above the law and Constitution. But our attachment to the CIA's clandestine services nevertheless seems to be unshaken ... we will argue that, no matter what it does, the CIA is essential to our national security."